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All these companies are putting in a good amount of effort in "gaming" their clientele (for lack of a better word) - I wonder if they spent this brain cycles an

All these companies are putting in a good amount of effort in "gaming" their clientele (for lack of a better word) - I wonder if they spent this brain cycles and time and other resources in actually improving their product, their support and generally treating their customers as human beings instead of Profit/Loss items, how much would it pay off in the long term. All these gimmicks work short term, until someone figures it out (like this article). But if everyone is doing it then it wouldn't make a difference I guess.

xster 9y ago
We need a startup that uses the same market forces to slowly chip away from the capitalists. i.e. a collective labour and legal assistance group that has economy of scale and/or ML that's cheap enough for everyone and uses its userbase to collectively punish companies that uses belligerent gamifications against its customers by automating bill payments and underpaying every single bill by a small amount that makes it financially penalizing to resort to collection agencies etc. A consumer protection equivalent of unions + zombie botnets.
- justaguyhere 9y ago
  Nothing will change until people shop responsibly and not give their money to shitty companies. But for that to happen, we need reliable info on what places to avoid (how do I know if a particular place is owned by walmart, koch or whoever I want to avoid?).
  - confounded 9y ago
    Wikipedia?
- nroets 9y ago
  Cooperatives is the best thing you will get. (A company owned by its clients). But clients around generally clueless how to run businesses. So they either don't excersize their voting rights or they vote for incompetent managers. One solution is cooperatives that have no operational assets and outsource everything. Then they still have bulk buying power.
  - xster 9y ago
    Not to be flippant but that last option almost sounds like... a democratic government that regulates the market :)

xster 9y ago

We need a startup that uses the same market forces to slowly chip away from the capitalists. i.e. a collective labour and legal assistance group that has economy of scale and/or ML that's cheap enough for everyone and uses its userbase to collectively punish companies that uses belligerent gamifications against its customers by automating bill payments and underpaying every single bill by a small amount that makes it financially penalizing to resort to collection agencies etc. A consumer protection equivalent of unions + zombie botnets.

justaguyhere 9y ago
Nothing will change until people shop responsibly and not give their money to shitty companies. But for that to happen, we need reliable info on what places to avoid (how do I know if a particular place is owned by walmart, koch or whoever I want to avoid?).
- confounded 9y ago
  Wikipedia?
nroets 9y ago
Cooperatives is the best thing you will get. (A company owned by its clients). But clients around generally clueless how to run businesses. So they either don't excersize their voting rights or they vote for incompetent managers. One solution is cooperatives that have no operational assets and outsource everything. Then they still have bulk buying power.
- xster 9y ago
  Not to be flippant but that last option almost sounds like... a democratic government that regulates the market :)